Today, there exist many types of electronic devices such as mobile telephones, media players, palmtop computers etc. Mobile devices such as mobile telephones, for example, are normally equipped with a function called short message service (also known as “sms”, or “teletext”), i.e. a communications protocol forming part of the GSM system and allowing transmission of relatively short text messages between such mobile telephones.
According to known technology, such sms messages (or “text messages”) can be composed and entered by the user into the mobile telephone by using a keypad forming part of the telephone. This means that characters such as letters, digits and other symbols are entered into the telephone manually by pressing the corresponding keys on the keypad.
Characters can be entered using the keypad in different ways. A common way is the so-called multi-tap method of inputting text. This method is based on the principle that each key of the keypad is associated with a number of characters and that the user selects a particular character by pressing the relevant key a corresponding number of times.
Another common way of inputting characters is by using the so-called T9 method. T9 stands for “Text on 9 keys”, and is a method which is used for predicting words which are input by using the keypad. The purpose of the T9 method is to simplify the typing of text messages in mobile telephones and is based on the principle that a user may press a key just once for each letter (as opposed to the multi-tap method, in which a user may have to press a key multiple times). Furthermore, the T9 method uses a database with a dictionary of words in a manner so that when typing a word, the dictionary is used to look up the words which correspond to an intended word, i.e. in the form of an entered sequence of entered keys. It has been found that the T9 method can speed up the process of writing messages via a keypad. Also, users of the T9 method may add their own customized words in the database.
A development of the T9 system is the so-called XT9 system, which comprises certain additional features. For example, the XT9 system uses information relating to which keys are close to each other. In this manner, words which are misspelled as a result of a user hitting a wrong key which is a neighbour to an intended key can be corrected in an improved manner.
An alternative to a keypad when entering characters forming an input text is by using a so-called stylus, i.e. a pointed, pencil-like writing tool which is used in many of today's mobile telephones for entering characters by “writing” on a touch sensitive screen forming part of the telephone. Such a combination of a stylus and a “writing pad” in the form of a touch sensitive screen is now common and can sometimes be regarded as more user-friendly than entering characters manually via a keypad.
An important principle with this method of entering characters using a stylus is that it requires a control unit and software adapted for character recognition, i.e. in order to detect each letter being entered by means of the handwriting procedure. A problem with handwriting detection and character recognition is the risk of misspelled words and wrongly detected characters due to the style of handwriting being used by the person who is writing. There is therefore a need to correct any incorrectly input characters in an easy and efficient manner.
Also, even though the above-mentioned known methods of entering information are relatively straight-forward for a user of a mobile device such as a mobile telephone, there is an increasing demand in the mobile telephone market for even more easy, quick and user-friendly ways of operating a mobile telephone. In particular, there is a need for faster, easier and more intuitive ways of composing sms messages, mms messages, e-mail messages and similar. In particular, there is a need for quick and simple methods of correction of any occurring misspellings of input text when using a handwriting tool such as for example a stylus.